Military Chief: Iran Will Support Syria 'to the End'

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran will support Syria "until the end" in the face of possible U.S.-led military strikes, the chief of Iran's elite Quds Force unit was quoted Thursday by the media as saying.

Iran is Syria's main regional ally and some analysts believe a wider goal of President Barack Obama's determination to launch a strike against the Damascus regime is to blunt Tehran's growing regional influence and any consequent threat to Washington ally Israel.

"The aim of the United States is not to protect human rights . . . but to destroy the front of resistance [against Israel]," Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani was quoted as saying.

"We will support Syria to the end," he added in a speech to the Assembly of Experts, the body that supervises the work of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the support and Iran has constantly denied allegations by Western powers that it has sent military forces to prop up President Bashar Assad's embattled regime.

A year ago, the chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said that members of the Quds Force foreign operations unit were in Syria but only to provide Assad's government with "counsel and advice."

Soleimani accused the United States of using its claims that Syria's forces had unleashed chemical weapons on civilians last month as a "pretext" to try to topple Assad's regime.